8 Bulletproof Tactics to Boost Ticket Sales on Facebook

Oh our beloved Facebook! Like it or Unlike it, the omnipresent social network impacts on the decisions of millions of event goers. In this post you’ll find ninja tactics to sell tickets and influence people on Facebook.

There is no escape. Whether B2B or B2C, fun or serious, entertaining or abstemious, your beautiful event can’t do without Facebook.

Don’t look at the stock market. Even if FB lost half of its value since IPO, we, event lovers, should breathe it, embrace it, but most of all, market on it.

Even more so because in time of crisis, social media wink at our budgets in a quite irresistible way.

It’s time to ditch that direct mail campaign that is getting every year more depressing in favour of a wave of social.

Here are 8 ways you can sell more event tickets using Facebook.

A Note on Methodology

When it gets to social you know I am not the kind of pundit who imposes nonsense like “interact”, “it’s a conversation”, “have a dialogue” and that sort of crap. You can only expect down to earth advice.

A basic premise is that you’ve built some sort of audience for your Facebook Page. In fact implementing the suggestions below with 5 likes may result in, well, nothing. If you don’t have any likes on your page, I invite you to read all the articles about Facebook for event professionals.

I always assume you have a strategy when I write these posts, you’ll be incautious to deploy these (and other) tactics without one.

Therefore here is the real thing, because sometimes WE NEED TACTICS!

Run a Competition

This is one of the most popular piece of advice you’ll find on the web. The reason why I am repurposing it here is because it is actually effective.

Bear in mind the competition needs to be relevant and I always advise clients to embark in such activity only when there is a strong and engaged user base. If you haven’t updated your page in weeks, running a competition will just freak fans out.

Also pick a relevant reward. I like what Picnic did on their Facebook page, inviting fans to submit an idea for their marketing campaign. The reward, a ticket for the event.

Sell Tickets on Your Page

This has become quite a standard. Any ticketing service coming out with a press release saying that they now allow to sell tickets on Facebook are about a couple of years late.

If your preferred event registration system does not have Facebook integration to sell tickets, ditch it.

[Digression Starts] I won’t make any names here as the list will be too long. Plus if I forgot someone, comments will be filled with ticketing services reps saying “You missed out”. Ahh the joy of being an events blogger! [/Digression Ends]

A Facebook page is often a powerful way to get potential attendees to know you. Once you’ve introduced yourself, talked to them, had a laugh with them, sell them a ticket. Having a module ready to convert such enthusiasm into sales is paramount.

Deliver Fans-Only Early Birds

OK they are not called fans anymore. What’s their name anyway? Likers? What are they?
Getting liked is increasingly tougher. Everybody has a page.

Yet few really understand what’s behind a like and how to get it. One of the most recurring advice I give (that applies to Facebook but it’s highly portable to other social networks) is that you need to give a reason to users to like you.

A special price is usually a valid reason. Remember to keep it exclusive to your Facebook audience. It’s awful to find out you are offering the same discount on Twitter. But if you have a strategy you know that, right?

Offer Tickets for Remote Attendees

While Youtube and Twitter reserve live streaming for brands spending humongous amounts of money, Facebook makes live streaming available for free.

With lots of talk about hybrid events, this is a great way to capitalize on the hard work you put into creating a huge follow base.

Use Facebook Ads

I think I mentioned this in the past, but I am happy to reiterate it. I do not even start a campaign on social without an advertising budget. If you want fast return, it’s usually very difficult to create it organically. Period.

Facebook Ads are a valuable ally to give depth to your efforts. This is specially true if your event is small or new. Don’t believe me? Think again.

Incentivize Friends Referrals

The strongest asset Facebook can count on is peer pressure. This is why a billion people has joined. This is also why thousands of apps become popular or pages are liked.

Looking at a picture of a friend and reading “Jon liked the Cheese Festival” makes you immediately curious about cheese. Even if you are vegan.

Peer influence is one of the strongest marketing drivers. Introduce a friend offers have been around forever. Facebook is an ideal place to run such marketing activities.

There are tons of apps that help you implementing a referral program. Offerpop is a nice one.

Add a Group Buying Twist

I touched on the concept of group buying before. I believe it should be used with caution and only in few scenarios.

Truth is that you need to be really good at math to implement a group buying campaign. If you did do your calculations and concluded that group buying is a valuable option, Facebook is a great place to roll that out.

Wildfire has an app for that (hopefully they’ll keep it after Google’s acquisition).

Make Your Tickets Become Gifts

Buying a Michael Bolton ticket for your lady will make her happy (and vice versa with most sporting events). Having facilities to buy virtual goods such as tickets as presents is a nice trick.

If it all happens on Facebook – purchase, virtual gift wrapping and deliver – even better.

You can integrate with services like Giftiki, who really nailed the process.

Once again, there tons of apps to help you achieving that.

In Conclusion

Facebook is your friend when it gets to boosting event ticket sales.

You always need a strategic framework and an engaged fan base to implement such tactics.

I hope these tips have been valuable, if they have remember to click Like. I’d be grateful.

Julius Solaris is the editor of EventManagerBlog.com, he is an international speaker and author of The Event App Bible, Engaging Events, Social Media for Events, The Good Event Registration Guide and The Annual Event Trends Report.